Will Donald Trump Be Kicked Out of Pennsylvania Avenue Once He’s Sworn in?

Only a few lights had flicked on in the residence of the White House as the sky turned pink and the Secret Service diverted bundled-up masses through security checkpoints set up for Inauguration Day. Five blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue, at the new Trump International Hotel, a group gathered for the seventh-annual presidential inaugural prayer breakfast, packed under glittering chandeliers hanging in the so-named Presidential Ballroom. The non-partisan event sold out, though people were invited to a prayer and worship pre-event in the hotel’s Lincoln Library—a wood-paneled room flanked by paintings of the 16th president—beginning at four A.M.

The prayer breakfast was one of several events hosted at the hotel, housed in the Old Post Office Building and leased to the Trump Organization for the next 60 years from the Government Services Organization. On Thursday, just after President-elect Donald Trump landed on a military plane at Joint Base Andrews for the first time, he sped off to his hotel to greet Republican leaders and Cabinet members waiting for him under those same chandeliers. “This is a gorgeous room,” he told the crowd, which included Republican leaders and Cabinet members. “A total genius must have built this place.”

Trump may have built the place—a $200 million project—with his three children, who each own a small stake, and the help of a $170 million loan guaranteed by the president-elect himself. The lease stipulates that Trump’s company pay the government $3 million a year for the 263-room, gilded crown jewel, situated smack between the White House and the Capitol.

But the lease also stipulates that he may not be able to own it, as of 12:01 P.M. on Inauguration Day. A provision in the document explicitly states that “no . . . elected official of the government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia, shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.” Experts have noted that this clause makes it clear that once Trump takes the oath of office, he will very clearly be in violation of the lease. Further complicating matters is the fact that the administrator who runs the G.S.A. is nominated by the president, which could make Trump something of his own landlord once he is sworn in.

The G.S.A., for its part, has said it would not comment on any such legal or ethical issues until Trump takes office. The agency told The New York Times on Thursday that it won’t have an update until after the inauguration on Friday.

If the G.S.A. allows Trump to hold on to the lease, he will face a barrage of legal and ethical questions surrounding the hotel. There is, of course, the issue of the emoluments clause in the Constitution, which prohibits the president from accepting gifts or payment from foreign officials and government. Experts have said that this includes diplomats paying hotel bills that ultimately end up back in Trump’s pocket. (Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyer said at a press conference that they did not believe this violated the emoluments clause, because it’s a “fair-value exchange.” She also noted that he would donate any profits from foreign officials to the Treasury Department just in case. This solution creates even more ethical and legal questions, and it is unclear whether his lawyer’s reading of the Constitution will be adopted by others.)

Beyond the legal issue of owning the D.C. hotel, there are the ethical questions surrounding Trump’s financial holdings and real-estate properties that have dogged him since the earliest days of his candidacy. Not long after Trump’s victory, foreign diplomats began frequenting the new Trump hotel, even shifting events previously planned at other nearby hotels to the Trump-owned location in order to court the president’s favor.

There is also the issue of outstanding debt to Deutsche Bank, which financed the project and is currently under investigation by the Justice Department. It so happens that Donald Trump, who owes the bank $170 million, will appoint an attorney general, who will be responsible for seeing that investigation through—or not.

Is this an endearing moment of Donald squeezing Eric’s cheeks, or Donald checking to see if his thoroughbred son’s teeth are healthy?

Photo: by Ron Galella/WireImage.

Tiffany, Donald, and Donald junior at Donald’s 50th birthday party.

Photo: BY RON GALELLA/WIREIMAGE.

Young Eric attends the U.S. Open in 1991, making one of the few public appearances without shellacked hair.

Photo: by Ron Galella/WireImage.

A 10-year-old Eric is not as camera-ready as his mother Ivana. He’ll get there one day.

Photo: by Ron Galella/WireImage.

Don Jr., 38, and Barron, 10, share an inter-generational fist-bump at the Republican National Convention.

Photo: By Carlo Allegri/REUTERS.

Eric and Don Jr., for once not wearing slicked-back hair, pay their respects to their dear father.

Photo: by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the Old Post Office, now a Trump hotel, Washington, D.C., July 2014.

Photo: BY PAUL MORIGI/WIREIMAGE.

Is this an endearing moment of Donald squeezing Eric’s cheeks, or Donald checking to see if his thoroughbred son’s teeth are healthy?

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

Tiffany, Donald, and Donald junior at Donald’s 50th birthday party.

BY RON GALELLA/WIREIMAGE.

Young Eric attends the U.S. Open in 1991, making one of the few public appearances without shellacked hair.

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

A 10-year-old Eric is not as camera-ready as his mother Ivana. He’ll get there one day.

by Ron Galella/WireImage.

As Ivanka practices looking gorgeous at her father’s 50th birthday, a 12-year-old Eric appears displeased at his choice of tie.

by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.

Eric and Donald at a basketball game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2007.

BY JAMES DEVANEY/WIREIMAGE.

Don junior in Briarcliff Manor, New York, 2014.

BY BOBBY BANK/WIREIMAGE.

A 23-year-old Eric attempts to smile. He’ll get there one day.

by M. Von Holden/WireImage.

Donald disapproved of Don Jr. proposing to model Vanessa Haydon using an engagement ring provided by a New Jersey jeweler who wanted publicity. “You have a name that’s hot as a pistol,” said Trump, a man who put said name on everything from steaks to playing cards.

by Dave Allocca/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock.

It is unknown whether Eric Trump eventually killed this animal for sport.

by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images.

Don Jr., and baby Barron at the unveiling of their father’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barron is either throwing his fists in the air in celebration of his father’s accomplishments, or is waving for help.

by Hubert Boesl/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images.

We presume that this is Don Jr. impersonating his sister Ivanka at the Eric Trump Golf Tournament in 2014.

by Bobby Bank/WireImage.

A 9-year-old Barron already has his father’s eyes and princely smirk.

by Debra L Rothenberg/FilmMagic.

At a campaign event in Las Vegas, December 2015.

FROM VISIONS OF AMERICA/UIG/GETTY IMAGES.

Don Jr., 38, and Barron, 10, share an inter-generational fist-bump at the Republican National Convention.

By Carlo Allegri/REUTERS.

Eric and Don Jr., for once not wearing slicked-back hair, pay their respects to their dear father.

by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the Old Post Office, now a Trump hotel, Washington, D.C., July 2014.